The age of the centibillionaires is here. Now 20-strong, the immensely powerful members of the club wield their $100 billion+ (£74bn+) fortunes to drive technological progress, transform economies, influence global politics and more. Their jaw-dropping wealth enables them to pursue ambitions as grand as eradicating all diseases and colonising Mars.
Click or scroll on to discover the people with the kind of money to make virtually anything happen, ranked by their total fortunes today.
Net worth estimates are courtesy of the Forbes World’s Billionaires List, published in March 2026. All dollar amounts in US dollars.
The first centibillionaire was Bill Gates, who briefly reached the milestone in 1999 amid the dot-com boom, before his fortune plummeted by almost half when the bubble burst.
Jeff Bezos followed in 2017 when his wealth also hit 12 figures, thanks to a Black Friday-driven surge in Amazon stock. Bill Gates made a triumphant return to the club in 2019, exited in 2020, and returned again in 2021, when he and Bezos were joined by Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault. By last year, the number of centibillionaires had climbed to 15. The total now stands at 20 in 2026.
So who are the lucky members?
The richest woman in the world before Alice Walton took the crown, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers briefly achieved centibillionaire status in 2024, dropped out of the club in 2025 and squeezed her way back in this year. Whether she can stay a fully paid-up member depends on how L'Oréal stock performs.
Bettencourt Meyers and her family own more than a third of the French cosmetics colossus, which has been on a rollercoaster ride over the past few years. Flagging sales in China, one of its key markets, and a general downturn in consumer spending have led to continued fluctuations in the company's share price.
The first centibillionaire, Bill Gates is also making a major difference by funnelling his enormous wealth into philanthropic endeavours. The former Microsoft boss has signed the Giving Pledge, a commitment to give away the majority of his wealth.
The charitable foundation Gates set up with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates in 2000 has donated over $100 billion (£74bn), equivalent to the size of the Bulgarian economy. Its work includes major efforts to eradicate polio, develop vaccines for numerous diseases and address issues like HIV/AIDS and agricultural development in developing nations.
Michael Bloomberg became a member of the dozen-digit cohort in 2024. The media mogul embodies the intersection of extreme wealth and political ambition. After serving as New York City Mayor, Bloomberg leveraged the fortune he gleaned from his eponymous media and financial information company to fund a 2020 presidential run.
These days, Bloomberg devotes much of his time to charity and is among America's foremost philanthropists, having promised to give away the bulk of his fortune. To date, he's donated over $25 billion (£18.6bn) to an array of good causes.
The richest crypto tycoon by a wide margin, Changpeng Zhao, aka CZ, is the founder and former CEO of Binance, the world's leading crypto exchange. He was forced to step down in 2023 following a US investigation and went on to serve four months in prison for violating money laundering laws. Zhao was pardoned by Donald Trump in 2025.
Despite his conviction, CZ still owns 90% of Binance and holds a substantial number of BNB tokens. With the company thriving and the token hitting new heights, CZ's wealth has risen accordingly. It's now at $110 billion (£81.9bn), up from $62.9 billion (£46.8bn) last year.
Carlos Slim Helú reigned supreme as the world's richest person from 2010 to 2013 and is no stranger to centibillionaire status, achieving it at the start of 2024. Together with his family, the Mexican business magnate owns 76% of the vast conglomerate Grupo Carso, which counts mobile telecoms titan América Móvil among its extensive portfolio.
Grupo Carso's stock tumbled throughout much of 2024 and 2025, knocking Slim Helú out of the 12-figure club last year. But the share price has recovered of late, heralding a return to the super-rich clique in 2026.
CEO of Microsoft from 2000 to 2014, Steve Ballmer is thought to own 4.5% of the tech giant and derives the lion's share of his wealth from this significant stake.
Ballmer acquired the Los Angeles Clippers NBA team for $2 billion (£1.5bn) the year he quit Microsoft. After spending another $2 billion on a new stadium, the team is now valued at $7.5 billion (£5.6bn). In addition to his hands-on role overseeing the Clippers, the former tech exec takes an active approach when it comes to philanthropy, having given away $6 billion (£4.5bn) to worthy causes. He made his debut in the dozen-digit club in 2024.
Making her debut in the 12-figure club in 2025, art patron and philanthropist Alice Walton is the second woman in history after Françoise Bettencourt Meyers to boast a net worth of over $100 billion (£74bn). Walton has smashed through the glass ceiling as Walmart shares have soared, adding $33 billion (to her already significant fortune in a year.
The world's richest heiress is the daughter of the late founder Sam Walton and, together with two of her siblings, owns a sizeable chunk of the retail behemoth.
Michael Dell founded his eponymous computer company in 1983 when he was a student at the University of Texas at Austin. His bulging net worth derives from his 50% stake in the firm. Dell fleetingly achieved centibillionaire status in 2024 as the company's share price surged, but a mass sell-off of tech stocks early in 2025 hit the firm hard, and its head honcho's net worth fell back as a consequence.
However, Dell stock has since rebounded in a big way, with the founder now seemingly ensconced in the 12-figure club. Last year, Dell and his wife revealed plans to donate $250 (£185) each to 25 million children across America.
Liking this? Click the Like button above. And click the Follow button above for more great stories from loveMONEY
Like his sister, Jim Walton is a relatively recent member of the 12-figure club. The major Walmart shareholder joined the fray off the back of the retailer's soaring share price, which has climbed steadily since 2024 and reached a record high earlier this year.
Jim Walton takes a more active role than his sister in the family's business affairs, chairing the clan's Arvest Bank Group.
Rob Walton is the wealthiest of the Walmart siblings. The eldest of the founder's children, he served as chairman of the retailer from 1992 to 2015 and only recently retired from the company's board.
In total, the Walmart heirs collectively own around 45% of Walmart stock.
Spain's richest person, Amancio Ortega owns 60% of Inditex, the fast-fashion group that counts Zara and Massimo Dutti among its portfolio of brands. Ortega founded the massively successful company together with his late wife Rosalía Mera, starting with a single store in A Coruña.
According to Forbes, Ortega earns $400 million (£298m) in annual dividends that he ploughs back into real estate investments. He reached centibillionaire status in 2024.
Warren Buffett's net worth also surpassed the $100 billion (£74bn) mark in 2024. One of the most successful investors in history, the legendary 'Oracle of Omaha' has the Midas touch and then some. As the chairman and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway, his savvy investment strategies have proved exceptionally fruitful, making him gargantuan sums of money, 99% of which he plans to give away.
Buffett founded the Giving Pledge along with Bill Gates in 2010 and has already donated $65 billion (£48.4bn).
In 2025, Jensen Huang was knocking on the door of the 12-figure club. In 2026, he's blown it off its hinges. Huang's fortune derives from his 3% stake in Nvidia, the chipmaker he co-founded in 1993. Buoyed by the AI boom, Nvidia stock shot up in price in 2023 and 2024, but faltered in 2025 amid a slew of headwinds, from rising competition out of China to the Trump administration's tariffs.
Huang very briefly enjoyed centibillionaire status in 2024, an impressive feat given his net worth stood at $21.1 billion (£15.7bn) before the shares' spectacular rally. Today, the company's market cap has blown past the $5 trillion (£3.7tn) mark.
Along with his family, Bernard Arnault has a 48.6% stake in LVMH, the luxury goods juggernaut that owns scores of distinguished high-end brands, from Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior to Moët & Chandon and Tiffany & Co.
LVMH's share price – and Arnault's wealth – have taken a battering over the past few years as shoppers cut back on premium purchases. But despite seeing $62 billion (£46.1bn) shaved off his net worth since 2024, the French tycoon remains firmly in the 12-figure club, as he has been since 2021.
Larry Ellison co-founded the company that would morph into Oracle in 1977 and hasn't looked back. The software firm has mopped up a bunch of competitors over the decades and is now worth more than $670 billion (£499bn).
Ellison, who resides on his very own Hawaiian island, owns around 40% of the business and remains very much involved, serving as Oracle's chairman and chief technology officer. He joined the 12-figure club in 2023, and in 2025 he became only the second person to reach a net worth exceeding $400 billion ($298bn), thanks to a surge in Oracle's stock price.
Meta co-founder, chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg owns 13% of the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. He ascended to the rank of centibillionaire in 2024.
The tech tycoon and his wife Priscilla Chan,are planning to give away 99% of their Meta stake during their lifetimes and have made it their mission to eradicate all diseases by 2100.
As we've mentioned, Jeff Bezos was the second person to enter the 12-figure club, gaining admittance in 2017. And in 2020, the Amazon founder attained yet another wow-factor milestone, becoming the first person in history to amass a fortune of over $200 billion (£149bn) amid the online retailer's pandemic boom.
On top of his almost 9% stake in Amazon, Bezos owns space company Blue Origin and venerable newspaper The Washington Post. When it comes to philanthropy, Bezos hasn't signed the Giving Pledge but has said he plans to give away the majority of his wealth in his lifetime.
Another 2024 inductee into the world's most elite club, Sergey Brin co-founded Google with his Stanford University classmate Larry Page in 1998 and took the world's leading search engine firm public in 2004. It was later renamed Alphabet.
Brin relinquished his role as company chairman in 2019 but still owns 5.7% of the business. His current activities include developing a state-of-the-art airship and partaking in various philanthropic initiatives via his family foundation.
Brin's fellow Google co-founder Larry Page also joined the club in 2024. Like Brin, Page stepped down from his active role at Alphabet in 2019, resigning from the position of CEO, but he remains a key shareholder.
Page's slice of the pie is bigger than Brin's at around 6%, hence his larger net worth.
Elon Musk has been part of the dozen-digit club since 2021. That same year, he became the first person ever to boast a net worth of over $300 billion (£223bn). And while his fortune has fluctuated wildly since then, it currently stands at an astronomical $839 billion (£624bn), with the Tesla and SpaceX boss, who aims to colonise Mars, expected to be the first person to achieve trillionaire status.
Musk's recent foray into politics proved highly controversial, fuelling concerns that some of the ultra-rich are buying their way oligarch-style into political power and influence.
Liking this? Click the Like button above. And click the Follow button above for more great stories from loveMONEY
Now discover the eight stars who've joined the billionaire musician club